Reigning British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington says his third position in qualifying for the opening race of 2019 was a “top result” for the new BMW 330i M Sport.
The Team BMW racer enjoyed a late improvement in the half-hour session to pip stablemate Tom Oliphant to third for the opening race of the 2019 season.
Turkington told TouringCars.Net that the WSR-run operation are still “leaning on” data from their previous generation 1 Series for those wet conditions, as it was the first time they have lapped in the wet in the new 3 Series.
“It was a top result today, P3 for the new BMW 3-Series and that’s the first time that we’ve run the car in the wet,” said Turkington.
“We’re leaning on our experience from last year with the 1-Series in conditions like that to point us in the right direction, so I’m very pleased, the car has run well in dry and wet conditions and it’s been fast.
“Certainly we can tune it, we’ve loads more to learn and a lot of untapped potential but so far so good.”
Although the previous generation 125i model was a strong all-rounder, Turkington admits the longer wheelbase of the new 330i helped the team in the greasy session, with Oliphant just behind in fourth and Andrew Jordan qualifying ninth.
“The longer wheelbase of the 3 Series potentially gives a bit more stability,” explained Turkington.
“The new Dunlop wet tyre is a softer compound this year so there’s a bit more grip available there.
“Both those things have helped us in the wet. But again it’s early days. You’re doing a time over one lap so we don’t know where the car is going to be over a race distance in the wet.”
With the three-time BTCC champion proving consistency is key to stringing together a successful campaign last year, Turkington says his finish races tomorrow, scoring points and continuing the development of the new machine.
“We just need to get the car home and keep learning – keep going around in circles!”
“Try to pick up a few points, as much as we can, we’ve given ourselves a good chance tomorrow so we’ll see.”